What You Have To Do for Basement Waterproofing:
The first thing that you should do, prior to the contractor arriving, is to inspect the area around the bottom of your house outside. If you notice that all of the dirt and soil around the base of your house slops inward, TOWARDS your home, instead of AWAY from it…you have a problem right there.
Make sure you fill this slope in, as if a heavy rainstorm hits, and the ground becomes too saturated to absorb water, then all of the water will slide down this slope and push right up against the foundation of your home, not only weakening the basement and be causing leaks, but weaken what holds your house up too.
You also need to make sure that you have spic-and-span gutters (no leaves or debris from anything clogging them up). Dirty gutters usually lead to the bottom of the gutter, which is called a downspout, having trouble expelling water. On that note, your downspout should be parked at a minimum of 5 feet from your home, so the water doesn’t come back to cause any problems.
What Your Contractor Has To Do for Basement Waterproofing:
Your contractor will be the professional who knows what they are doing. A true professional will be able to inspect your foundation and should be able to identify where your leak is, and how the leak has formed, and what can be done about it.
The contractor will have various chemicals and materials that they will use to help effectively seal the problem. They may also make recommendations, and don’t be surprised if the recommendations aren’t cheap, as basement renovations on the part of water damage very rarely are.
What You BOTH Have To Do
Again, on the topic of recommendations, if your contractor makes any, then you will need to talk it through and find out how the recommendation will help your leak, and how much it would cost to put it into action. You can also consider asking the contractor if anything needs to be altered in your home, because usually, something needs to be changed, such as digging up part of the basement floor to install a sump, or digging a 12 inch trench along the entire base of the basement for the installation of a French Drain.
